Op 28 december jl. is tijdens de jaarlijkse PAN werd, voor een uitverkochte zaal, de winnaar van de Calefax Compositie Wedstrijd bekend gemaakt. Het publiek was getuige van de première van het winnende stuk: ‘Ranae’ van Jeffrey Harrington. Middels een internetverbinding met Harrington kon hij de première van zijn stuk live meemaken. Naast deze uitvoeringsprijs zal Calefax in het voorjaar van 2011 zijn stuk gaan opnemen.

De jury, bestaande uit leden van Calefax en voorzitter Aroud
Noordegraaf (Calefax’ 'composer in residence' dit seizoen) heeft twee
andere composities een eervolle vermelding gegeven. Dit zijn: ‘(part
of) everything” van de Nederlandse componist Ivo van Emmerik, en
“Phenomena III” van de Japanse componist Takahiro Sakuma. Gefeliciteerd!

Calefax ontving maar liefst 34 inzendingen uit 17 (!) landen. We hopen de competitie ook volgend jaar weer te organiseren. Hieronder vindt u het jury rapport dat tijdens de PAN is voorgelezen.

“My name is Arnoud Noordegraaf, I am the chairman of the jury of the annual Calefax Composers Competition. Together with the members of Calefax, I’ve been very pleased with the entries for the 2010 competition. This is the third year of the competition, and both the quantity and the quality are still rising. The international appeal of Calefax, and of the format reed quintet in general, seems to be underlined by the fact that we received compositions from no less than 17 different countries.
This year Calefax has promoted the competition with the question: “Who writes the best 'short story' for Reed Quintet?” The jury has noticed that some composers have taken this question quite literary, and made very narrative music. This also resulted in imaginative titles such as ‘Baby Giraffe’, ‘My friend’s broken car’ and a composition called ‘Anecdote about global crisis, married couple, 2 dwarfs and a swan’. Of course we have, above all, been judging the music as such. The invention, structure and the instrumentation of the compositions.

After intense discussions and rehearsals, we have come up with one winner and two honorable mentions. These three so-to-speak ‘finalists’ come from three countries: Japan, the United States and the Netherlands. I would like to name the honorable mentions first. That is, from Japan, a composition with a very attractive structure, fresh ideas, well instrumented. This is the composition by Takahiro Sakuma. The other honorable mention is for a piece of high poetic quality. This is a composer that used, within the limited time of the music, a surprising variety of instrumental combinations. I am talking about, and I think he is in the audience, Dutch composer Ivo van Emmerik.

The winner of the 2010 Calefax Composers Competition made very clear choices for his piece. It shows that a short story doesn’t need an immense amount of ingredients. The composition shows a nice balance between repetitive motives and both harmonic and dynamic changes. A certain obsessiveness paired with suspense in the higher instruments. The winner of the 2010 Calefax Composers Competition is Jeffrey Harrington.”